Review by WestIndie001 -- Farmer Beau's Farm

[WestIndie001]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Farmer Beau's Farm" by Kathleen Geiger.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Farmer Beau’s Farm is an illustrated children’s book about Farmer Beau and his wife Bamma, who find six kittens on their farm one day. Overtime, the kittens start to leave the farm. There is one remaining kitten that chooses to stay behind and live with the farm couple. Beau and Bamma name this one Kailey. Later, Kailey Kitten befriends another animal named Samantha Bunny, who also makes a home on Beau’s farm.

Kailey and Samantha become best friends. They explore the farm together, take afternoon naps together, and when night comes, they both snuggle into the homes that Beau and Bamma made for them. Basically, the two animals live a fun and relaxed life on the farm with nothing to worry about. One day, Kailey and Samantha overhear a conversation between the farm couple, which has something to do with taking home Malissa. Kailey and Samantha hear that Malissa is some kind of weird animal. Kailey and Samantha start to worry, as they learn that the new animal isn’t a cow, horse, pig, or any other common farm animal. They fear their lives will change with this new and unusual addition.

There are sixteen colored illustrations in this book, and the drawings aren’t perfect. There are inconsistences in the pages. The size of Malissa Giraffe seems to vary, as does Farmer Beau’s head. In some illustrations, Beau’s head is a normal size, but in another, his head is ridiculously huge. In some illustrations, Kailey and Samantha are roughly the same size, but in other pages, Samantha is significantly smaller than Kailey. Were these inconsistences a problem? No, they weren’t to me. I thought the illustrations were appealing and fun because of the cartoony style, and I doubt little children would care much for the inconsistent sizes of Farmer Beau’s head.

Everyone knows that this is a children book, so there won’t be numerous subplots, character development, and so forth. So, I didn’t feel it would be a spoiler to mention that Malissa is a pink giraffe and that the theme of this book is accepting others who are different from you. Kailey Kitten and Samantha Bunny learn that Malissa Giraffe, though an unusual creature to them, is still an animal who has feelings, an animal who needs a home and needs friends just like any other animal. This is always a valuable lesson to learn in life. I feel that children will pick up on this lesson easily when reading this book or if they’re having this read to them.

I give this 4 out of 4 stars, because I can recommend this to any parent or guardian who’s about to have their child enter preschool or kindergarten. This would be a time when a child will discover more diversity around them, as a classroom is sure to have children of different sizes, colors, backgrounds, and personalities. Aside from that, I personally enjoyed Farmer Beau’s Farm, because I found it to be fun and heartwarming. I hope there’ll be a sequel.

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Farmer Beau's Farm
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